Trump worked to kill a story about his friendship with Epstein. Now we know why
He reportedly put pressure on the paper's top editor, Emma Tucker, and even Rupert Murdoch, who controls the paper's business side, claiming that the alleged facts behind the story were nothing but a hoax, and threatening to sue the paper if it forged ahead.
How worked up was he? 'On a fucking warpath,' one administration official told Rolling Stone magazine.
Now that the story has been published – appearing on the Journal's print-edition front page, no less – and picked up everywhere, it's easy to see what Trump was so upset about. And equally easy to see why trying snuff it out in advance became such a high priority.
It's not just that the 50th birthday card he reportedly penned for the future convicted child-sex offender is so damning in itself, with its bawdy sketch and references to shared secrets and 'enigmas' that 'never age'.
It's not just that Trump has been denying a tight friendship with Epstein – who died in jail in 2019 – for some time, and that this would clearly put the lie to that.
It's not just that he really, really wants this scandal to go away since it has been turning swaths of his normally cult-like base against him.
No, there's another element – and a brutal one for the president. It's where the story was published: in the Wall Street Journal, whose conservative opinion side has often backed him and whose news side has a reputation for ensuring that explosive stories are bulletproof: accurate in their facts and fully prepared to stand up under legal scrutiny.
What's more, the newspaper is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, Trump's most important media ally.
Murdoch's rightwing propaganda outfit, Fox News, has been Trump's cheerleader and alter ego for years and played a crucial role in getting him elected twice. (Fox News has been much more docile in recent days, doing Trump's bidding by almost shutting down its reporting and commentary on Epstein and Trump.) And Murdoch's right-leaning tabloid the New York Post tends to stand by Trump, too.
The Journal is widely perceived as right of center politically, with a reputation for pin-striped rectitude. In short, they don't make things up.
When the paper has taken a big swing at exposing wrongdoing – do you remember John Carreyrou's exposé of the blood-testing company Theranos, by any chance? – their reporting holds up.
All of that made JD Vance's complaints ring awfully hollow after the birthday card story ran.
'Forgive my language, but this story is complete and utter bullshit,' Vance posted on X shortly after it published. 'Does anyone honestly believe this sounds like Donald Trump?'
And it made Trump's vehement denials and threats look absurd. Even in the Maga mind, the Journal is not the third-rate rag he tried to make it out to be.
One part of Trump's denial efforts fell hilariously flat after he claimed that it's not his style to draw sketches. ('I never wrote a picture in my life,' he claimed.) The internet was soon flooded with his signed doodles and drawings over many years.
Granted, Trump has had a lot of success in recent months in his various suits against big news organizations – in particular CBS News, whose parent company, Paramount Global, recently settled a worthless case for $16m.
Capitulation and cowering has run rampant. And each one of the settlements makes it easier for Trump to start the next court battle with every expectation that he'll prevail, well before a suit ever reaches a courtroom.
This, I suspect, will be quite different. A lawsuit won't make this damning story go away.
And I doubt that Trump really wants to put himself through legal discovery, with all the ugliness that might be exposed.
Will this be an element of Trump's long-awaited downfall? Few are willing to go that far, after all the scandals that have come and come, too numerous to detail and each one regarded as the final straw.
But at a time when Magaworld is finally having its doubts about their dear leader and savior, this one really hurts.
Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture
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Since 10 August 2019, when Epstein's body was found in his cell with an orange sheet wrapped around his neck at the New York Metropolitan correction center under suspicious circumstances, declared a suicide by Attorney General William Barr, he has been raised into a phantasmagorical presence that will not vanish. Epstein has become the Ark of the Covenant in the cosmology of rightwing conspiracies. When its doors are opened it will supposedly reveal the ultimate secrets of deep state pedophiles. A poll in 2021 found that about a quarter of Republicans believed that 'the government, media, and financial worlds in the US are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation'. The road from Pizzagate, the QAnon predecessor conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democrats held child sex slaves in the basement of the Comet Ping Pong Washington pizza parlor, to January 6 was a straight line. Half of Republicans believed that 'leaked email from some of Hillary Clinton's campaign staffers contained code words for pedophilia, human trafficking and satanic ritual abuse – what some people refer to as 'Pizzagate'' was true or probably true, according to a December 2016 Economist/YouGov poll. Trump gave credence to the QAnon pedophile theory in October 2020, when he was asked about it at an NBC News town hall. 'Let me ask you about QAnon,' said Savannah Guthrie. 'It is this theory that Democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior of that.' After replying seven times that he didn't know about it, Trump said: 'Let me just tell you, what I do hear about it, is they are very strongly against pedophilia. And I agree with that. I mean, I do agree with that. And I agree with it very strongly.' A few months later, many in the mob assaulting the Capitol were QAnon believers, though the percentage could not be tabulated. A group of social scientists found that belief in QAnon theories correlated directly with 'support for the January 6 insurrection'. More than a third of Republicans believed that the FBI (ie the Deep State) 'instigated' the January 6 assault, according to a Washington Post/University of Maryland poll. For decades Trump has cultivated paranoid conspiracy theories to foster a cult around himself. His method existed long before Rush Limbaugh loudly burst into talk radio, but Trump inflames paranoia hour by hour to make himself unavoidable. When Trump makes an accusation it's news – Joe McCarthy's technique. The ever-shifting series of conspiracy claims from birtherism onward have been monetized into a reliable cash cow by rightwing media. Bottom-feeding serves the bottom line. Every newly invented plot keeps the machine whirring. Maga is constantly tantalized, addicted and perpetuated. The uses of Trump's conspiracism are complex, from the profane to the holy. The demonology has elevated Trump into a savior of the Magatariat from the globalist elites and fiendish pedophiles. No greater evil can be projected. It's more than a theory; it's a theology. Epstein wraps it all up, explains all, proves all – Pizzagate meets the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Lyndon Johnson had his credibility gap with the Vietnam war. Richard Nixon had his 18-minute gap in his White House tapes. Trump now is bedeviled by his conspiracy theory gap. All the president's men – and women – have stoked the Epstein plot. Dan Bongino, deputy director of the FBI, demanded in 2023: 'What the hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epstein?' He urged listeners to his talk show 'not let that story go' and blamed 'people in the Washington swamp who are not telling you the truth'. Kash Patel, the FBI director, repeatedly claimed in 2023 that the Biden administration and Democrats in the Congress were withholding documents about Epstein 'because of who's on that list'. On 27 February, Attorney General Pam Bondi welcomed 15 Maga influencers to a press event where she handed out binders labeled 'Epstein Files: Phase 1', which contained no new information. Anger simmered. On 14 March, Bondi stated on Fox News that the Epstein 'client list' was 'sitting on my desk right now to review', raising the expectation among the Maga believers that such a 'client list' existed and that powerful Democrats would be revealed. The 'client list' allegedly contained the names of Democrats for whom Epstein trafficked girls and then blackmailed. On 5 June, Elon Musk, accelerating his orbit away from Trump's gravitation, posted: 'Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!' Musk then deleted his post. But, on 6 July, the Department of Justice issued an unsigned statement that there was 'no incriminating 'client list'', 'no credible evidence … that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals', and that 'no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted'. Bondi's insistence that Epstein kept no 'client list' of people he supposedly blackmailed may well be true. . But Bondi debunked a falsehood that had become an article of faith for Maga believers. It was bait for the base. The Maga world erupted. 'Please understand the EPSTEIN AFFAIR is not going away,' Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, posted. 'THIS IS NOT WHAT WE OR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ASKED FOR and a complete disappointment.' Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, for example, posted: 'GET US THE INFORMATION WE ASKED FOR!' Tucker Carlson called it a 'cover-up' of Epstein as a secret agent for Israeli intelligence. 'Why was he doing this, on whose behalf, and where was the money coming from?' Steve Bannon roused the rightwing cadres at the Turning Point USA convention on 13 July. 'Epstein,' he said, 'is a key that picks the lock on so many things, not just individuals, but also institutions, intelligence institutions, foreign governments and who was working with him on our intelligence apparatus and in our government.' Trump's grooming of his followers cannot be undone. Decades of propaganda have become gospel truth. The Maga base and Republicans generally have not cared about Trump's sexual abuse of women. After the two E Jean Carroll trials in which Trump was found liable for defaming her by claiming she was lying about his sexual assault, the hush-money payments to silence Stormy Daniels for her sexual relationship with him, and numerous credible reports of dozens of women who have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse by Trump, a poll in the fall of 2024 conducted by a conservative thinktank, the American Enterprise Institute, showed that only 5% of Trump voters 'believe he did commit sexual assault'. E Jean Carroll told me that a number of women have come to her to relate similar assaults, but do not want to become public figures out of fear of retribution. For Maga, and Republicans, if there is any distinction, these stories are unworthy of attention. They sanitize and dismiss such predations, while claims of child molestation incite them. Justifying a sexual libertine like Trump, they have held him up as a white knight avenger against pedophiles, remade him into a purifying figure, the defender of the innocent. Since Bondi issued her statement that the Epstein 'client list' did not exist, Trump's attempts to stamp out the flames have become more frenetic. He went from urging his supporters to move on to telling them to get lost. His first remark was to chide a reporter who asked about it: 'I can't believe you're asking a question on Epstein at a time like this, where we're having some of the greatest success, and also tragedy with what happened in Texas. It just seems like a desecration.' Trump got more frustrated. 'For years, it's Epstein, over and over again,' Trump posted on Truth Social, blaming the files on Democrats. 'Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden administration.' It was 'all over a guy who never dies, Jeffrey Epstein'. Trump tried to rally his base. 'What's going on with my 'boys' and, in some cases, 'gals'?' Trump posted. 'They are all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB!' Trump reportedly phoned Charlie Kirk, the head of Turning Point USA, which had served as a forum for criticism of his handling of the Epstein affair, to quiet him. The glib talkshow host announced: 'I'm done talking about Epstein for the time being.' As promised, Kirk shut up, but the Maga chorus kept chirping. Enraged, Trump posted on 16 July that the 'new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker … Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats' work, don't even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don't want their support anymore!' At a bilateral meeting with the crown prince of Bahrain, Trump lashed out at 'stupid Republicans'. Meanwhile, Speaker Mike Johnson, invariably a loyal soldier, but who felt forced to respond to the disturbance of the base, called for an investigation. Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, asked that Ghislaine Maxwell appear as a witness. Do they think an inquiry would not come to focus on the evidence perhaps in the FBI's possession of Trump's gamey relationship with Epstein, rather than the mythical 'client list'? Under the stress of the Epstein controversy that will not disappear at Trump's command, the unpopularity of his One Big Beautiful Bill, the public's rejection of his brutal deportation methods, and the weakening of the economy as a result of his mad tariffs, Trump is becoming more unhinged, speaking openly of firing the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, who, unlike Epstein, is a live target. Crashing the economy might serve as a temporary distraction. Then, in a fit of retributive pique, his administration fired James Comey's daughter, Maurene Comey, a prosecutor in the office of the southern district of New York, who had handled the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell cases. Trump lost more control. Facing backlash, he asked Bondi to seek to release Epstein grand jury material, which almost certainly contained no reference to him and was a substitute for the full files, throwing oil on the fire. Trump pressured the Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch not to publish a letter he wrote in honor of Epstein's 50th birthday. The Journal reported: 'It contains several lines of typewritten text framed by the outline of a naked woman, which appears to be hand-drawn with a heavy marker. A pair of small arcs denotes the woman's breasts, and the future president's signature is a squiggly 'Donald' below her waist, mimicking pubic hair. The letter concludes: 'Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.'' On Friday, Trump sued the Journal and Murdoch. The ghost of Epstein haunts Trump. He cannot dispel his spirit. 'Not a fan, not a fan,' he muttered in the past, trying to distance himself. But Epstein continues to swoop in – 'a guy who never dies'. Until evidence of Trump's participation in Epstein's transgressions is either established or discredited, including the photographs that Michael Wolff claimed Epstein showed him, Epstein will never die. If Epstein were to appear to Trump at night as an apparition, his Marley's ghost, he might warn him that there is no happy ending. Sidney Blumenthal, a former senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, has published three books of a projected five-volume political life of Abraham Lincoln: A Self-Made Man, Wrestling With His Angel and All the Powers of Earth. He is a Guardian US columnist and co-host of The Court of History podcast
